Creative Freedoms (Diaper Dimension Fan Fiction)

Detective Davin stepped into the nursery and looked around.

Empty. Pastel walls. An unoccupied crib. Inactive robot arms hanging from the ceiling.

The daycare's owner stepped in after him.

Davin took a long, slow chew of his nicotine gum, then turned to face the woman. Davin was considered tall at seven and a half foot, but for this woman even he had to look up.

"Are you sure this is the room?"

"Of course. Are you sure you had the right location?"

Davin turned and looked at the pristine room again. There hadn't been a quick moving of somebody to trick him, the thin layer of dust didn't lie.

He nodded.

"Well, Mr Davin, I really can't help you."

"Mm. Would you excuse me for a minute?"

"Something else for your investigation?"

"I need to make a call. Classified business."

She eyed him, then nodded and left. The automatic door wooshed down behind her.

Davin reached into his beige trenchcoat and retrieved his communicator. He didn't know if they were listening in on the nursery's many robotic sensors - and wouldn't blame them - so he hit the dampening button which knocked out all their equipment in the room for five minutes.

He held the metal rectangle up in front of him, and the device projected a screen into the air.

It took a moment, then a man and a woman in office wear slipped into seats in front of a camera. They wore dark ties over their striped shirts.

"Detective."

"I'm at the location. Nobody is here."

The pair glanced down, and began hitting buttons.

"Perhaps they are on the move nearby?"

"I doubt it. It looks undisturbed, and nobody could get out of here easily."

"Oh." the woman said.

“What?”

"There's a relativity difference. Time moves much quicker where you are than the departure location."

"It's like… going to Narnia…" the man said with a furrowed brow.

"Where?"

"The point is, the location was correct. It just wasn’t today."

"How long?"

"A week, probably."

"Damn. The trail will be cold."

"Shall we talk to your department?"

Davin chewed his gum for a long moment.

"No. I'm still on this case. And I'm still the best at these anyway."

"As you wish. We'll await your call for transfer, detective."

"Mm."

Davin returned the device to this pocket, then turned to open the door.

As expected, the daycare owner was waiting suspiciously close.

"Did you find what you needed, detective?"

"I need you to pull a record of everybody in this room for the last week. Your robot systems can do that right?"

"Well I can already tell you, because nobody has been in here for a week. We stopped using it after an occupant escaped."

"Escaped?"

The woman forced a cold smile.

"Ran away. Very bad for business. We still haven’t found how they got out. Fortunately their parents haven’t come around, so we presume they ran home."

He sighed, then pulled out a picture from his coat.

“Was this the occupant?”

The matron squinted at it. In truth it was a computer generated estimate. People didn’t arrive exactly as they were in other places.

“Yes! So she was a little criminal! I knew it!”

He slipped the photo back into his pocket.

“No. The criminals are elsewhere.”

“Oh. So what are you going to do?”

Davin took a deep breath, and looked around the room. There. Cameras.

“Show me all of your video from that day.”

“Well, okay, but it’s a bit strange.”

She turned and led him through the halls. Along the way they passed robotic arms carrying the students into their rooms for midday naps, with many Littles travelling with their bottoms up in the air and their legs spread by their thick diapers. Davin thought most of them looked like they needed a change, but he saw them getting placed right into their cribs. Well, he didn't really understand kids and Littles and stuff.

“Lady! I need to talk to you! There’s been a big mistake!”

They turned to see a Little getting carried down the hall. He was dressed in only a blue shirt and a big white diaper.

The matron pointed a remote at him, and robotic hands jammed a pacifier into his mouth. It had some kind of feeding tube attached, which immediately began passing a thick sludge down through the pacifier. He hadn’t even passed them when he grunted and the back of his diaper began expanding.

The matron ignored him as he was carried off to his room, and the adults continued on to the control room. Sure enough, there was a huge wall of screens just as Davin expected.

“Now,” she said, hitting some controls, “Let me show you.”

He ignored the wall of screens - most of them just showed squirming Littles in their cribs, a sight which could be seen on countless parenting channels - and they leaned into one particular screen which the matron pointed to.

After a moment there was a glitch in the feed, and then there was a Little standing in the room, looking quite confused. Damn, Davin would need to get the tech people to erase that. Then the screen went black.

“What happened?”

“We don’t know. Whatever glitch she activated caused the cameras to power down for diagnostics after they came back online. And by then she was gone. It’s possible that the door unlocked as a safety feature. But we don’t know how she caused the glitch.”

“How long was she in there?”

The matron shrugged.

“Could have been a minute, could have been hours. The situation wasn’t noticed until the end of the day.”

“Is that all you can give me?”

“Well, based on our estimates of stock levels, we think she may have been changed once or twice.”

“Hrm. What about the clothes she was wearing then?”

“They’d have been incinerated by lasers,” the Matron shrugged, “The parents who send their kids dressed like that want them to see their bad clothes going.”

Davin took out a notebook, and made a few notes. No artefacts left behind. Footage to be erased. Actors to play the parents to clear things up here.

He glanced at the screen, and noted down the date.

Then he looked around all the security monitors, checking their coverage.

“The west side has a blind spot.”

“Yes, well, that goes to the school. We don’t get many students sneaking in. The teachers use this place as a threat to behave.”

Davin nodded, and made a note.

---

“Detective Davin is it? My secretary said you were coming.”

Davin nodded, and took a seat in the principal’s office. She was another looming giantess. They sure loved working in childcare. A neat row of straps and paddles hung on the wall.

“I’m here about a potential runaway from the daycare.”

“Oh? They didn’t let us know? We can look right away.”

He shook his head and pulled the photo from his pocket.

“It was a few days ago. Do you recognize this girl?”

The matron took the photo, and then frowned.

“I believe so. I left her for just a minute, and then found she’d climbed out the window. She’d be in terrible trouble, but her parents haven’t returned her to class yet.”

“Do you know which way she went? And what she was wearing?”

“Hrm. She was probably in our school uniform. A navy vest, white shirt, red necktie, and navy skirt. Though I can't quite remember. We get a few spontaneous enrollments sent in wearing outfits which the parents want replaced.”

“Anything else?”

“No. She was caught trying to sneak into the bathrooms without a pass. That’s why I was about to spank her.”

“Spank her?”

The headmistress arched an eyebrow.

“It’s important that she learn her lesson. Of course I thought it was obvious that she was hiding her diaper because one more accident was going to get her sent to the daycare. It seems I was more on the money than I realized, if she came from there.”

“Do you know which direction she went?”

“Well, right outside my window is the mall.”

Davin nodded.

---

“Thank you for your assistance,” Davin said, taking the photo back from the teenager who was staffing the mall daycare today.

“If you find her,” the girl said, “She’s still in trouble for pulling Amelia May’s hair.”

“Oh. Did you see her do it?”

“No, but I trust Amelia May. She’s a little angel, and manages to keep the other girls in line.”

“Sounds like a mob boss.”

“Of course. She’s our little diapered terror, but the results speak for themselves.”

Davin glanced into the mall daycare. A few dozen occupants - half of them were Littles - were playing quietly with toys or were up to some antics in the ballpit.

“Very well. So you think she left with a family?”

“Yes. I think she was trying to sneak out behind them, but when they spotted her she claimed she had appeared from another world? It was very silly. I thought they'd send her back in but when next I looked they were all gone.”

“Do you know where I can find them?”

“Well um, I’m not supposed to give out personal customer details.”

Davin leaned in.

“This is very important, and is part of an official investigation.”

“Yes… Yes sir.”

---

Davin checked the address, then turned away from the suburban house.

He walked down the street and made a call.

“Boss, I’m going to need a class h surveillance drone.”

“Oh? Is that case really that difficult? Where?”

“I’m inputting the address now.”

“On its way.”

Davin set himself up at a nearby park, picking a quiet bench away from all the screaming going on in the playground. It had such a high bar fence around it, couldn’t it also be soundproofed? Well, he supposed most people wanted the world to see their Little ones, and they wanted the Littles to see the world seeing them, to let them know that the world had accepted them in their place.

He pulled his comms device from his pocket, and projected the screen an inch above so it looked like a regular tablet. The feed kicked in, and he saw a view of the local rooftops racing by.

The drone would take a few minutes to arrive. Davin glanced back to his dossier about this case.

An unknown group was behind all this. It was blind luck that the Inter-World Agency had even noticed, and had managed a quick reverse hack to get some intel.

Though Davin didn't quite understand their motives. They'd picked their target for some sort of ironic reason? For guessing things about this world and getting it all right? What could possibly be unique about this world? Why would it be funny for somebody to be sent here?

Davin looked at the trees. Maybe other worlds only had little shrubberies. Maybe trees were considered a mythical nightmare idea.

Some squeals of Littles playing at the playground drew his attention, and he wondered if maybe it was the bright colours on the plastic climbing fort. Perhaps they didn’t have red in other worlds.

A group of cheerleaders walked by, and Davin minimized his screen. It was obvious that a few of them were diapered and blushing terribly, a hazing ritual as old as time in those circles. Maybe other worlds didn’t have cheerleaders? No, that couldn’t be it, because that cheerleader team from another world had once gotten lost in this one when their whole bus hit a portal.

Davin supposed there was no possible way to guess. From what Davin had heard, most worlds were basically the same, with G-men like him taking care of these unique cases for the IWA.

There was a beep from his comm device, and he enlarged the screen. There. The drone was entering the house via a vent.

The residents were home. Lucky that he hadn’t picked the front lock then. The parents were reading in the living room.

He found and remotely hacked the security system, then brought up the footage from a week ago.

In the choppy footage, there was a Little wandering around the house and looking a bit lost. Surprisingly she was wearing a mature outfit - a plum top and denim shorts - exactly what his missing case had been wearing in the nursery arrival footage. Either she’d held onto them after all or had somehow gotten them back. The couple's daughter sat nearby, keeping an eye on the window.

The daughter seemed to be the first to recognize that the mother had returned home as the door opened.

"Mom! Libby kept asking about my diapers and went in to look at them!"

"She better not have!" the mother boomed as she quickly marched in.

The Little spun around and covered her mouth in silent shock.

"She pulled one out of the pack to look at it. You'll see it's all messed up!"

"I didn’t!… Aria could have done that by herself!"

"I put you in charge for twenty minutes and said that Aria wasn't to go into her room, so why would she be in there and how do you know it?"

The Little was hopping from foot to foot and slowly backing away with her hands over her mouth.

"If I find out you did!…"

They walked out of view then, and the security system was only recording around the front door.

Davin switched back to the drone. This seemed to be the right house at least, though that video was a few days old, and who knew how things had changed since.

He guided one of the drones into a playroom, and found two girls - the daughter and a Little.

"Mom!" the daughter suddenly screeched, "Libby took my toy!"

"I did not!" the Little gasped to her playmate.

There wasn't a good camera angle to confirm her identity. But surely that was still her.

"Play nicely Libby or I swear I will come in there."

"But I didn't!"

"It's Yes. Mommy. And you share this instant."

"Yes Mommy!"

The Little looked down at her toys between her spread legs, then frowned and pushed them all across the floor. She had to raise her backside which lifted her short play dress, and revealed her diaper. It seemed to sag.

"Which one do you want?" she hissed.

"The one you took! That one!"

"I didn't… Fine!"

"Say it nicely."

"Here's your toy, big sister..."

"That's better."

The girls went back to playing, and the Little had her face down towards the floor.

Davin shut off the feed, and recalled the drone. The only way he’d get confirmation is if he went in there himself. He didn’t have a warrant or cover story however - none of it was meant to take this long.

And, there was something else… He began walking away, with his hands in his pockets. How could a Little guess anything creative and very unique? Littles only had one thing on their minds, and that was diapers. Either trying to stay out of them, or trying to get back to panties when in them. Even this newcomer revealed the usual obsession once she was in a house with them and thought that she wouldn’t get caught. Littles were such simple creatures.

The drone was caught on something, and he checked the feed. An overturned plastic tricycle in the yard. He guided it out of the basket filled with toddler lego and set it back to auto.

And then, was it right to send her back now when she might have become diaper dependent? Davin usually worked faster than this, and these sorts of cases were rare. And then there was the question of why that mysterious group had sent her to this world. They seemed to think it would be ironically amusing. Was she a princess or something in another land sent to live a normal family life? He recalled seeing the word princess in the materials gained from the hack.

He chewed his gum, and began his way back to the office. He’d get his confirmation in a few days, once he had his paperwork sorted and entered the house.

---

“What do you mean?"

The realtor looked at Davin in surprise, perhaps not expecting the sudden outburst, and maybe feeling a bit threatened as Davin loomed over him.

“They… They moved a few days ago.”

“What? Where?!”

“I… I can check my files.”

“You do that then.”

Davin pinched his nose. Something told him this case wasn’t going to be easy. It was almost like the universe itself was working against him on this one.

---

Davin glanced at the mountains outside the train window. This case had taken him all over his jurisdiction for far longer than he’d like to admit, and he would not miss this interloper by a hair's breadth yet again.

Up ahead, he could see the family occupying two opposite facing seats. He had visual confirmation, and stood to move down the carriage.

The father was wearing a typical tourist’s outfit with a camera around his neck, while opposite him the mother was reading a travel magazine. As Davin neared, he saw the playpen they’d set up against the wall.

"Oh," Davin said with some forced enthusiasm, "Cute kids."

It came out like he was chewing nicotine. He really needed to give up smoking.

The parents smiled.

“Did you hear that girls?” the mother asked. “The nice man gave you a compliment.”

At once, they turned and began clapping, bouncing with a series of crinkles.

Davin eyed the girls. “Have they had some… hypnotic help to behave?"

“Of course,” the mother said, keeping her voice low.

“So they’re, you know…?” Davin pointed to his head. “Mush?”

“Oh, heavens no.” the mother laughed. “They’re still in there. It’s just better that they’re good automatically and don’t have to try.”

“Especially on our vacations,” the father said.

“Do you go on a lot of those?”

“Oh, all over! We’ve been to just about every theme park, every restaurant, every remote getaway, and visited every remote relative a person could hope for.”

Davin nodded slowly. He knew all too well…

“Oh and you needn’t be concerned about the girls,” the father said, misreading the frown on Davin’s face, “Our first daughter grew up and then needed to, well, be started over… And the other was a lost Little with too much imagination. We took on quite the handful.”

“Even now, I still get plenty of tantrums to deal with,” the mother said, rolling her eyes. “You’d think that reducing their vocabulary to a few simple words and cute lisps would reduce the amount they have to think about.”

Davin eyed the girl he’d been seeking all this time in the playpen. There was a line of drool from her mouth to her pacifier swinging from where it was pinned to her pinafore. She looked fairly vacant as she drummed her plastic toy on another toy, though there was maybe… something, in her eyes. But no, now it was gone again.

Seeming to get suddenly bored with her drumming, she dropped the toys and crawled away to fetch another. Her diaper looked clean, but then he’d seen the mother giving a diaper change earlier in the trip before he’d walked over, and he couldn’t imagine that she was still continent after how long this had all been going on, along with the hypnotism.

Could such a hypnotism be reversed? Would he need to know the trigger words and get them from the parents? He was fairly sure it would wear off eventually, but by then she would have had so much practice being this way, could she even stop?

It would be wrong, Davin realized, to send her back now. He doubted that she’d want to leave her family anyway, they seemed very attentive. And look how well they’d gotten her behaving! Even if they’d used hypnotism to get there.

Perhaps she’d guessed this world as a utopia, a place where she’d be well looked after and didn’t have to worry about her apparent adult lifestyle from before, focusing on bills and taxes and whatnot. Yes, that was surely it.

“It was nice meeting you,” Davin smiled.

And for once, he meant it.

All this time he’d been returning people to their dimensions. Fighting the universe. Now he saw, he was actually meant to be keeping them here. Bringing more in like this ‘princess’, who was currently drooling as she shook a tambourine around.

Yes, he’d start with more people like her, and more versions of her in various dimensions, and as for the IWA, well…

He smiled, and pulled out his comm to deliver a text message.

“Target has escaped this dimension,” he wrote, “Using means unknown. Please supply dimensional locating tech and I will pursue.”